Boyhood

The Oscar marathon has begun … 5 weeks to and I have a good amount to watch in order to both part take in the Oscar pool and be able to sit in front of the TV and be like … “Oh come on, he wasn’t best (enter category here) … it was clearly (enter winner here) ! “So my journey started last Thursday with finally getting to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel and it continues with the highly praised Boyhood which not only got 6 nominations but also a whopping 98% on Rottentomatoes, so an absolute must watch.

And quite honestly it is hard to give a really detailed review after so much praise the movie has gotten in the press but I will give it a shot. The one thing with which I can summarize is, that this “project” is courageous and innovative in a very special way. The plot of the movie is kind of simple in the end … it is about boy growing up going through the awkward motions of this very process. A few things in this process however stand out for kids of that generation like me – well I am little older – but still. It captures moments of a certain “periods” which we all can relate to – like the time when everyone was playing the Wii or when girls (luckily there were less of those in Germany) thought it was a good idea to sing Britney Spears – Ooops, I did it again. But all these things were not staged, they were real – and nobody knew at the time of shooting that this will be something a later generation will be like…”oh yeah, remember when … “. The other thing which made this movie just so nice and enjoyable was that the portray of a low-middle class family was depicted so realistically without the intention of conveying any kind of message, it was literally just what it is … a young single mother trying to raise her two kids. And that mother Patricia Arquette did deliver a really great performance – she went through all the motions from sad to desperate to determined to successful and then sad again. But ultimately, the competitive edge of this movie was the fact that it was literally shot over the course of 12 years, and this makes it an absolute unique experience for which it deserves some love from the Academy (here is my guess…best director)

This movie was indeed really really good and I would recommend everyone to see because it is something which you probably have not seen before and will not see again … but the uniqueness of it does not make up for the fact that the story is ultimately pretty simple and that is what separates this film from an actual great film.

The Good

Innovative, different and just enjoyable to watch

Personable and likable cast in beautiful movie

Big achievement with low budget

The Bad

As strong as the idea of the movie, the script is ultimately pretty uneventful